Miguel Sánchez
Now that we are in the middle of the transition to electricity, it is curious to see how this process comes from far back. Yes, this time We won't go back to century-old Detroit Electric and its tens of thousands of fully electrified units produced until 1939. Far from it, we will place ourselves in recent times. One of those in which the temporal barriers between a historical vehicle and a contemporary one are blurred creating what we know as the history of the present time. However, to understand the interest of the big brands in electricity there is a very clear turning point that happened almost half a century ago.
This is the first Oil Crisis in 1973. Caused by the refusal of the OPEC countries to export crude to the western powers allied to Israel in the Yom Kippur war. A contest that pitted the Jewish state against the Baathist governments of Syria and Egypt. Allies of the Palestinian cause within the framework of an ideology that yearned for Arab unification under non-denominational and modernizing criteria. A host of political and ideological reasons, but nevertheless put on the table the economic dependence that the West has on crude oil and other fossil fuels.
In this way, although the military factors that led to that crisis were overcome, several uncomfortable questions remained in the air. What will we do in the face of new oil supply problems? How can we think of unlimited development knowing the finiteness of certain strategic resources? Issues that invited a paradigm shift. Making the large automobile companies begin to devise new forms of urban mobility for the medium and long term. A context where interest in electric vehicles was renewed, leading to such interesting tests as the 1989 Audi Duo.
THE AUDI DUO AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HYBRIDS IN THE GERMAN BRAND
Although German engineering has always enjoyed a deserved fame, the truth is that the first serious trials towards electrified urban mobility were made in Italy by FIAT. Company that commissioned Giovanni Michelotti to develop two small utility vehicles in the seventies: the X1 / 23 and the 126 Urban Vettura. Both larvae in prototype form without ever reaching series, but innovative when considering electrification for small daily commutes. And, for the moment, that was the field reserved for electrical tests. Since, as now, the biggest problem with these vehicles was focused on autonomy.
However, the truth is that the biggest problem of consumption and pollution has always been with regard to short and daily trips. Thus it made perfect sense to start testing urban electrification, coming naturally to the appearance of the hybrid concept. A type of vehicle capable of moving in the city with electric power but with a combustion engine for long and occasional trips. Under this premise, Mercedes and Audi got down to work testing not with small utility vehicles but with saloons such as the Audi 100 or the Mercedes 190.
A model this last one that in 1990 even got to present a totally electric prototype. Quite advanced for its time in terms of autonomy and ease of recharging the batteries. But still too little credible to make it into a series. In this sense, although the 1989 Audi Duo also did not target dealerships it did turn out to be a much more credible option from a market point of view. And it is that, while for the long trips it mounted the 2 liters with five cylinders and 3CV available in the range of the Audi 136 C100, for the day to day in the city it had a Siemens 3CV electric motor.
Below, in red, you can see the button that gave way to electric mode
HYBRID OR ELECTRIC ONLY
In a normal way, the Audi Duo is a hybrid car where the electric motor works as a support to the gasoline one. However, it is possible to select the disconnection of the latter to operate only in electrical mode. Of course, to do so, the car must be stopped before pressing the corresponding button. From now on, the Audi Duo can run on electric with a range of 38 kilometers and a top speed of about 50 km / h. Brief features, but encouraging considering that it is a pioneering vehicle in the form of a laboratory.
In fact, all ten built units of the Audi Duo were tested as a taxi in the German city of Ingolstadt. In this way, that character that we mentioned earlier was put on the table. With the electric motor for the city and the combustion motor for the highway. An idea that little by little was making its way. Since two years later a new electric prototype was created using an Audi Quattro as a base, while in 1997 a hybrid A4 was launched. The brand's first plug-in hybrid, which did also come standard with a station wagon body.
In this way, commercial credit was finally given to an idea that over the years has become common currency at Audi. Having today hybrid ranges such as the e-tron, standing at the outpost of an electrical transition that, as current as it may seem, began to take its first steps almost half a century ago. Yet another example that to venture into the future you just have to read the past carefully.
Photographs: Audi
